DIY front lip- a "how to" with fiberglass

st182er

New member
Hey guys,

Just a warning! This is my first time working with fiberglass + Creating my own method (making it up as I go)

What you need for this type of fiberglassing:
-Fiberglass resin
-catalyst
-Gloves
-Breathing mask (not a house dust mask, a proper mask)
-fiberglass mat ( not sure if its actually called that)
-some sort of stick to mix with
-A lip design on paper or in your head
-A cheap paint brush
-masking tape
-plastic wrap
-A plastic container you don't need
-expanding foam ( in a spray can, get at bunnings)
-body filler (light weight)
-3 levels of sand paper (ultra rough, some-what rough and wet sand)
-scissors
-angle grinder (will make your life easier)
-Primer paint
-spray paint
-and your trusty skills

The reason why I'm making my own lip is because there is little/no after market support for my car. The lips that are available are horribly riced out!

I've seen some celica's with dc2 lips but they just don't fit that well. I've also seen people use all sorts of gardening/door trimming and stick on ebay lips that don't look that great either.


Step one:
Trace the under-part of your front bumper on a large piece of somthing (I've used a sheet of fibro)
IMG_0269.jpg

IMG_0271.jpg

my concept lip design drawn on paint...
lipdesign.jpg


Step two:
Wrap the area that you want the lip to be in plastic wrap on the car. Use masking tape to make sure the plastic stays in place. make sure you cover MORE than you intend to (since my car was clean the plastic wrap basically stuck on but I still used masking tape)
IMG_0272.jpg

IMG_0273.jpg


Step 3

Mix the fiberglass resin with the catalyst ( read instructions for ratio)
With the paint brush, apply a thin layer on the plastic wrap ( generally covering the area you want the lip to be)

Sorry no pictures because my hands were covered in resin.

after a few minutes when the resin is sticky, start applying the fiberglass mat. Don't just slap it on! rip a piece of the mat approximately 100cm² and place it on the sticky resin. Apply all around untill your car looks like it has a beard. Then apply another layer of fiberglass resin top of of that.
IMG_0275.jpg

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Step 4

The next day take off your OEM lip yo! The plastic wrap should enable you to pull the thing off easily and you dont have to worry about damaging your cars paint.
IMG_0278.jpg


Step 5

Put your lip on a work station up high so its easy to work on. Using your expanding foam spray can, slowly spray the bottom part of the lip.
It should stick on and you can spray more onto it. Build up the foam to the general shape you want your lip to look like. ( Dont worry if it looks ugly, this is just to have something there so that the fiberglass has something to lay on. You can cut this foam later, it dries in a pop corn texture.)

IMG_0279.jpg


See the black line that i have drawn on the fibro, that is how far the lip will extrude.

IMG_0280.jpg


Step 6

Plastic wrap the table area where you will be working on the lip. (Yes you need plastic wrap, because its non-stick with fiberglass and can be pulled off the lip when dry)
IMG_0285.jpg


Step 7

I've Started to bog the front part of the lip so that i can stick on more fiberglass to the bottom part
IMG_0286.jpg



clearer diagram of what I did:

lipdiagram.png


Step 8
TEST FIT TIME !!
when the fiberglass is dry, simply pull up and the lip should lift while the plastic wrap stays on the table. test fit to make sure everything is fine and that the shape of the lip did not change while you were working on it.

IMG_0292.jpg


Step 9

Trim off all the hairy stuff with scissors or an angle grinder ( I used scissors first and I found that an angle grinder is 100000X better)

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and this is how it turned out:

IMG_0297.jpg


Step 10

Paint the entire lip lightly so that you have some sort of general coverage. This is extremely handy because you can then sand it back and see all the imperfections.

Spent most of the day sanding it down with low grit paper and angle grinding out major lumps

IMG_0298.jpg


Step 11

Ive bogged it all up and sanded it down ( the boring part) then used a marker to draw the shape of the lip onto the "general shaped" lip
used a angle grinder to follow the cut-out line and :

IMG_0300.jpg


Step 12


keep using body filler and sanding it down until the surface is smooth. sand down all the edges !

test fit again
IMG_0302.jpg

IMG_0303.jpg


This is how it should look when you're bogging it up. (less is more)
keeping bogging and sanding until you're happy with the surface
IMG_0312.jpg


Sep 13
BOG, SAND, BOG, SAND, BOG, SAND, BOG, SAND, BOG, SAND
and then trim all the edge with an angle grinder

should look something like this:
IMG_0329.jpg


Step 14

Fresh paint. matt blaaaaaack

now i have to design some metal tabs that with enable the lip to bolt straight on the bottom of the bumper
and some cable ties + 3M tape to support!

IMG_0331.jpg


more updates comming



This is where I'm up to. Updates will be posted on this page only :p

Any tips will be awesome! cheers
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
Great write up. I have been kicking this around myself and I am curious if fiberglass tape rolls would be a simpler way to do the early steps of getting the shape of the car, with less overage material.
 
this is the stuff i used for my lip build.
Florists-Foam-Brick-x-4_0_0_1CS8T.jpg

i used masking tape to tape off the form of the bumper. this creates a tight body line for accurate molding. also, when it all cures, you can just pull off the whole lip with ease.

this is with the foam hot glue gunned onto the masking tape. the blue area is where the tape ends on it. all you has to do is cut the foam blocks to extend out to how far you want the lip to be. continue all the way around the front bumper and do not start shaping yet until the whole front blocks are all the way around. here is the finished product with the foam. this is before laying down the fiberglass. yes, i learned the hard way and tried to lay a whole sheet of fiberglass at the same time and it was a no go. the sheet would sag from the weight of the resin and fiberglass together and not stick to the foam.
47b8a95b.jpg
 

alltracst185

New member
celicast184":256dykr7 said:
this is the stuff i used for my lip build.
Florists-Foam-Brick-x-4_0_0_1CS8T.jpg

i used masking tape to tape off the form of the bumper. this creates a tight body line for accurate molding. also, when it all cures, you can just pull off the whole lip with ease.

this is with the foam hot glue gunned onto the masking tape. the blue area is where the tape ends on it. all you has to do is cut the foam blocks to extend out to how far you want the lip to be. continue all the way around the front bumper and do not start shaping yet until the whole front blocks are all the way around. here is the finished product with the foam. this is before laying down the fiberglass. yes, i learned the hard way and tried to lay a whole sheet of fiberglass at the same time and it was a no go. the sheet would sag from the weight of the resin and fiberglass together and not stick to the foam.
47b8a95b.jpg
Haha, you saw the writeup on mr2oc.com too. The guy made his own body kit on his MR2, wide body flared too...came out pretty good. Here is the link. Some very good info on DIY body work.

http://mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=30564 ... s+body+kit
 
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